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PROPEBTIES 



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COMPILED BY 



THE FLOWER COMMITTEE 



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AND APPROVED BY THE SOCIETY 



THE STANDARD FOR JUDGING PLANTS 
AND FLOWERS. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

1862. 



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PROPERTIES 



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COMPILED BY 



THE FLOWER COMMITTEE 



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AND APPROVED BY THE SOCIETY 



AS 



THE STANDARD FOR JUDGING PLANTS 
AND FLOWERS. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

1862. 



BOSTON : 
BUTTON AND SON, PRINTERS, 
TBANSCRIPT OFFICE. 






INTRODUCTION. 



The Flower Committee have been greatly troubled 
by the general ignorance of florists and exhibitors of 
what constitutes perfection in a plant or flower. 

They have, therefore, as authorized by the Society, 
with the consent of the Publication Committee, issued 
this book, in the hopes it may gain the attention of 
exhibitors, and be productive of a vast change in the 
plants and flowers shown at our exhibitions. 

At first it will be impossible to bring plants and 
flowers rigidly up to the standard, but the Committee 
trust in time to be successful in improving the class 
of flowers exhibited. 

Your Committee are also aware that, during the 
past few years, many prizes and gratuities have been 
awarded which should have been withheld. This 
error or laxity has been productive of bad effects, and 
in the future no prize or gratuity will be awarded to 
any exhibition not coming up to the standard, or 
showing decided marks of excellence. 

The following rules have been mainly compiled 
from Glenny's Properties of Flowers and Plants, the 
received English authority. Much has been omitted, 
but it is believed all has been retained which can be 
useful or important to the American gardener. 

For the Flower Committee, 

Edward S. Rand, Jr., 

Chairman. 



POT TLANTS. 

The great ends to be attained in growing plants in pots, 
are symmetry of growth, elegance of form, healthy and 
profuse foliage, and abundance of bloom; and the nearer 
a plant approaches to possessing all these requisites the 
nearer it approaches perfection. 

The first qualification is health, and freedom from insects 
and dirt. The second, profusion of foliage. The third, 
symmetry of growth. The fourth, elegance of form. The 
fifth, abundance of bloom. 

In laying down rules for judging pot plants, so much lati- 
tude must be given and allowance made for species and 
varieties, for different habits of growth and modes of culture, 
that it is impossible to fix any standard. Each different 
case has its own rules, and what would in one case be excel- 
lence, in another would be deformity. Compliance with the 
above rules is necessary; departure from them should at 
once disqualify a plant. Further than this, the Committee 
must use their best judgment in each particular case. It 
should, however, be observed that in foliaged plants, so 
called, bloom is not essential to perfection, which there de- 
pends upon variety and brilliancy of marking. 

BOUQUETS. 

In judging bouquets, attention should first be paid to their 
composition with reference to grace and elegance ; second, 
to quality of the flowers ; third, to contrast of colors. 

Size is not a merit in a bouquet ; in many cases, as in 
hand bouquets, which are usually too large, it is a positive 
defect. 

Too many flowers and too little foliage is another common 
fault. 



A compact mass, a mosaic of flowers, seldom fails to be 
stiff and inelegant. Light feathery sprays of green and 
drooping vines add much to the effect. 

EPACRIS. 

The plant should be full foliaged, with deep green leaves, 
free from dust or scale. 

The too rampant growth should be checked, and the 
pinching have been done so as to cause judicious breaks. 
Long leafless shoots disqualify a plant. 

The bloom should be profuse and large : colors brilliant 
or pure, according to the variety. 

In judging Epacris, the chief attention is to be paid to 
the form of plant and abundance of bloom. 

BEGONIA. 

The plant should be so covered with foliage as to hide the 
root and pot ; the leaves should stand up well on stout foot- 
stalks, which should not be so long as to give the plant a 
straggling appearance. The markings of the leaves should 
be bright, clear and well defined. Blurred irregular colors 
show want of attention in regulating light and heat. If 
the plants are shown in bloom, (which is not essential, 
but where the flowers are large and fine, as in B. grandis, 
Argentea splendens, &c., is an additional recommendation), 
the trusses of bloom should stand up well above the foliage. 
These remarks apply especially to the foliaged Begonias : 
the other varieties are to be judged by the general rules for 
Pot Plants. 

TROPJEOLUM. 

The many new varieties of this plant, originated within 
the last few years, lead us to suppose it may become a 
florists' flower. The form should be circular, the petals 

A* 



overlapping so as to form a circle, leaving no space at the 
base ; the colors should be well defined, and markings dis- 
tinct and bright ; the foliage should be round and large ; the 
flower should be on a long footstalk, and stand out well 
from the foliage. The edges of the petals should be smooth 
and round ; jagged edges are an imperfection. 

The double varieties are so irregular as to be worthless ; 
they may be improved. These remarks do not apply to T. 
tricolorum and kindred varieties, but to T. majus and minus, 
and their many varieties. 

DELPHINIUM. 

If single, the sepals to be regularly formed, evenly bal- 
anced and well open; the eye to be bright and distinct. 
The color may be delicate, but must always be clear. Dull 
and muddy colors are worthless. 

If double, the flower should be nearly round, with no vis- 
ible eye ; the petals and sepals regularly disposed and indis- 
tinguishable the one from the other. 

In every case the flower spike should be straight, and the 
flowers regularly disposed along its whole length. The 
longer it is the better. 

AQUILEGIA. 

The flowers should be large and numerous on the stem ; 
flower stem strong ; color bright and distinct, (not splashed) ; 
sepals open and fully reflexed, at least two thirds of the 
flowers fully expanded. Double varieties should show no 
irregularity. 

GLADIOLUS. 

The flower-scape should be strong; the flowers evenly 
grown and disposed on opposite sides of the stem, or entirely 
on one side, at least four-fifths of the flowers expanded ; in 
no case should a half-expanded or double-stemmed spike be 



admitted into a stand. The color must be distinct and the 
variegations clear; in the larger-flowered varieties, the 
upper petals will be thrown back, while in the smaller-flow- 
ered varieties they will incline forward. 

Strong spikes with distinctly marked flowers should have 
the preference. 

DOUBLE ZINNIA ELEGANS. 

This new and handsome flower gives promise of soon 
taking a high station amongst our most popular bedding 
plants. It grows freely in almost any soil, and blooms in 
profusion from July till November. 

The flower should be round,- high in the centre, forming 
half a ball. The petals should be thick, smooth, broad, and 
rounded at the ends, and free from notches. 

The flower should be supported by a strong footstalk, and 
be perfectly double, large and imbricated. 

The color should be bright and dense, — its want of color, 
or rather its dinginess, has so far been its greatest fault ; but 
from the bright and varied colors of the single kinds, includ- 
ing scarlet, crimson, purple, pink, yellow and white, a great 
improvement in this respect may be anticipated. 

GLOXINIA. 

The plant should be healthy and vigorous, with sufficient 
foliage to cover the top of the pot. The leaves should be 
broad, thick and velvety, the lower ones growing in a hori- 
zontal manner. 

In drooping varieties, the tube of the flower should be 
broad and stout ; the throat should be wide and even ; the 
sepals slightly reflexed, smooth and round at the edges, and 
of sufficient substance to retain their beauty. The color, if 
a self, should be bright and distinct ; if spotted, splashed or 
striped, the markings should be very decided and not run 



8 



together. Tlie greater the contrast of colors the better, the 
markings to be regular ; the three under-sepals should al- 
w ays be marked alike and of uniform size. 

The plant must be a free bloomer, the flowers standing 
well up above the leaves, and as the front or inside of the 
flower is the handsomest part, it should be the most con- 
spicuous. 

The erect varieties should have a long round tube a little 
swelled at the middle, the throat to be the same color all 
round ; the sepals the ?ame, and the divisions scarcely per- 
ceptible. The mouth of the tube should be perfectly round, 
and the sepals be blunt and smooth, forming another circle. 

CAPE HEATHS. 

Few if any rules can be laid down as to the properties of 
a good Erica. So numerous, so varied, and so beautiful, 
nature has done so much for this lovely genus, that the 
labor of the hybridist seems scarcely necessary. We can 
hardly hope to do much towards improving them, but we 
may hope to see them grown more frequently, more partic- 
ularly the slow-growing and choicer varieties. It is a gen- 
eral opinion, though perhaps an erroneous one, that hard- 
wooded varieties are difficult to manage. They must have 
their peculiar soil and treatment, and are impatient of any 
neglect. But their successful cultivation is only a question 
of time, care and perseverance ; as from three to five years 
are necessary to form moderate-sized specimens. 

The size of an Erica should not be considered of much 
importance, unless plants of the same variety are exhibited, 
and these otherwise equal ; for some kinds — Ardens and 
Massoni, for instance — at eighteen inches high, would be 
as fine and creditable specimens as plants three to four 
feet high of intermedia and Wilmoriana, and other free- 
growing kinds. The plant should be healthy, fni-nished 



with branches to the pot, and of a neat regular habit. 
Symmetry of form, with profusion of bloom, is the point we 
should endeavor to attain. 

CINERARIA. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, blunt, and smooth 
at the ends, closely set, and form a circle without much in- 
dentation. 

2. The centre or yellow disk should be less than one third 
of the diameter of the whole flower ; in other words, the 
colored circle formed by the petals should be wider all round 
than the disk measured across. 

3. The color should be brilliant, whether shaded, tipped, 
or self; or, if it be a white, it should be very pure. 

4. The trusses of flowers should be large, close, and even 
on the surface ; the individual flowers standing together 
with their edges touching each other, however numerous 
they may be. 

5. The plant should be dwarf. 

6. The stems strong, and not longer than the width across 
the foliage ; in other words, from the upper surface of the 
truss of flower to the leaves, where the stem starts from, 
should not be a greater distance than from one side of the 
foliage to the other. 

7. Tipped flowers will stand first, and the more abrupt 
and well defined the tip is, the better. The tip should form 
a dense margin of color, and the more contrasted with the 
ground the better ; bright selfs next ; indefinite shades last. 

CAMELLIA JAPONICA. 

L The flower should be circular on the outside, when 
looked at in front. 

2. The petals should be thick, smooth at the edges, broad 
and blunt outside, cupped or reflexed, as the case may be. 



10 



3. It should be imbricated, (that U, each petal should 
have its centre over the join of the under petals) ; each row 
of petals should be smaller than the row immediately under it. 

4. The number of rows one above the other should form 
the flower into half a globe. 

5. The color should be alike all over the flower, if a self; 
and if blotched or striped, the contrast of the two colors 
should be striking. 

6. If the flower be white, it should be pure ; and if white 
and colored in mixture, the white should be distinct and the 
outline of a blotch or stripe, where the white and color join, 
should be very decided. 

CHRYSANTHEMUM. 

1. The plant should be dwarf, shrubby, well covered with 
green foliage to the bottom, the leaves broad and bright, the 
flowers well displayed at the end of each branch, come in 
abundant quantity, and be well supported by the stems. 

2. The flower should be round, double, high in the crown, 
perfect in the centre, without disk or confusion, and of the 
form of half a ball. 

3. The individual petals should be thick, smooth, broad, 
circular at the ends, according with the circle of the flower, 
the indentations, where they meet, hardly perceptible. 

4. The petals must not show their under sides by quilling, 
and should be of such firm texture as will retain them all in 
their places. 

Size of bloom to be large in proportion to the foliage, 
but the size only to be considered when plants are in all 
other respects equal. 

FUCHSIA. 

1. First and foremost it is absolutely necessary that the 
petals of the inside or corolla be a different color from the 



11 



outside, for contrast is essential ; those, therefore, which are 
all of a color are comparatively worthless. 

2. The brighter the scarlet outside, and the deeper the 
purple inside, the better the flower. The loss of the rich 
purple is fatal, therefore, to the Scarlet Fuchsia. But a 
Fuchsia may be white outside,^ and in that case a bright 
scarlet corolla would be a good contrast, though a purple 
would be better. 

3. The form of the buds or drops, before they open, can- 
not be too round, because that form is the most beautiful 
before opening, and gives the widest sepals when open. 

4. The footstalks of the flower should be long enough to 
let the bloom fall beneath the leaves, and not long enough 
to let them hang into the branch below them, for the flowers 
should all hang free of the foliage. The corolla or purple 
should be large and close, and the sepals should reflex to 
expose their inside surface, and to show the corolla out well. 

5. The anthers should hang conspicuously below the pur- 
ple, and the pistil below them. 

6. The flowers of a Fuchsia should come out at the base 
of every leaf all over the plant, and we have many which 
do so. Double varieties are monstrosities, and, with a few- 
exceptions, worthless ; they lack the simple grace and ele- 
gance of the single varieties. 

ANTIRRHINUM. 

1. The plant should be dwarf, the flowers abundant, the 
mouth wide, and the more the inner surface turns up to hide 
the tube, the better. 

2. The tube should be clear and pure if white, and bright 
if any other color ; and the mouth and all the inner surface 
should be of a different color and texture, and form a con- 
trast with the tube. 

3. The petals should lap over at the indentations, so as 



12 



not to show them ; the texture of the tube should be like 
wax or enamel ; the inside surface, which laps over, should 
be velvety. 

4. When the flower is spotted or striped, the marking 
should be well defined in all its variations ; the color should 
be dense, whatever that color may be. 

5. The flowers should form spikes of six or seven blooms, 
close but not in each other's way, and the footstalks should 
be strong and elastic to keep them from hanging down close 
to the stem, which they will if the footstalks are weak. 

A FINE ROSE. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, and smooth at the 
edges. 

2. The flower should be highly perfumed, or, as the deal- 
ers call it, fragrant. 

3. The flower should be double to the centre, high in the 
crown, round in the outline, and regular in the disposition 
of the petals. 

MOSS ROSES. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, and smooth at the 
edges. 

2. The flower should be highly perfumed, or, as the deal- 
ers call it, fragrant. 

3. The flower should be double to the centre, high in the 
crown, round in the outline, and regular in the disposition of 
the petals. 

4. The quantity of moss, the length of the spines or 
prickles which form it, and its thickness or closeness on the 
stems, leaves and calyx, cannot be too great. This being 
the distinguishing characteristic of Moss Roses, the more 
strongly it is developed the better. 

5. The length of the divisions of the calyx, and the rami- 
fications at the end, cannot be too great. 



13 



As the entire beauty is in the undev eloped bud, the more 
the calyx projects beyond the opening flower, or rather the 
more space it covers, the better. 

G. The plant should be bushy, the foliage strong, the 
flowers abundant and not crowded, and the bloom well out 
of the foliage. 

7. The color should be bright or dense, as the case may 
be, and if the color or shade be new, it will be more valua- 
ble ; and the color must be the same at the back as at the 
front of the petals. 

These seven properties would constitute a Moss Rose a 
valuable acquisition ; and probably at present, the greatest 
acquisition would be a yellov,^ one. 

8. The stem should be strong and elastic, the footstalks 
stiff, so as to hold the flower well up to view, above or be- 
yond its leaves. 

9. The bloom should be continuous, like the China roses. 

ROSES FOR STANDS, 

SHOWING THE SINGLE BLOOM, LIKE DAHLIAS. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, and smooth at the 
edges. 

2. The flower should be highly perfumed, or, as the deal- 
ers call it, fragrant, 

3. The flower should be double to the centre, high in the 
crown, round in the outline, and regular in the disposition of 
the petals. 

4. That is, the petals should be imbricated, and in distinct 
rows, whether they are reflexed, like some of the Velvet 
Tuscan kind, or cupped like a Ranunculus ; and the petals 
to the centre should continue the same form and only be 
reduced in size. 

5. The color should be distinct and new, and stand fast 
against the sun and air till the bloom fails. 

B 



14 



6. The stem should be strong, the footstalk stiff and elas- 
tic ; the blooms well out beyond the foliage, and not in each 
other's waj. 

7. The plant should be shrubby, the foliage a fine green, 
and growth strong, the flowers abundant. 

8. The bloom should be continuous, till the frost cuts off 
the growth altogether. 

NOISETTE ROSES. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, and smooth at the 
edges. 

2. The flower should be highly perfumed, or, as the 
dealers call it, fragrant. 

3. The flowers should be double to the centre, high in 
the crown, round in the outline, and regular in the disposi- 
tion of the petals. 

4. The cluster should be sufficiently open to enable all the 
flowers to bloom freely, and the stems and footstalks should 
be firm and elastic to hold the flower face upward, or face 
outward, and not to hang down and show the outside, instead 
of the inside of the blooms. 

5. The bloom should be abundant at the end of every 
shoot. 

6. The blooming shoots should not exceed twelve inches 
before they flower. 

7. The bloom should stand out beyond the foliage, and 
the plant should be compact and bushy. 

8. The flowering should be continuous, as long as the 
plant is unaffected by the frost. 

CLIMBING ROSES. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, and smooth at the 
edges. 

2. The flowers should be highly perfumed, or, as the 



15 

dealers call it, fragrant; except in Prairie roses, where 
perfume is not essential. 

3. The flower should be double to the centre, high on the 
crown, round in the outline, and regular in the disposition 
of the petals. 

4. The joints should be short from leaf to leaf. The 
blooms should come on very short branches, and all up the 
main shoots. The plant should be always growing and de- 
veloping its flowers from spring to autumn, except Prairie 
roses, and the foliage should completely hide all the stems. 

SWEET WILLIAM. 

1. The head of bloom should be large. 

2. The individual flowers should be round, smooth on the 
edge, flat on the surface, thick in the petal, and the edges 
should touch each other without lapping over. 

3. The color should be pure, free from speckles ; if 
marked, the circles should be well defined. 

4. The divisions in the petals should not show, and the 
footstalks of the individual flowers should be long enough 
to throw them up above the green of the plant itself; there 
should be not less than nineteen pips or flowers in the truss. 

5. The double varieties should in every pip form half a 
ball, and should stand well out, edge to edge, without lap- 
ping over. 

CARNATION. 

1. The flower should not be less than two and a half 
inches across. 

2. The guard or lower petals, not less than six in num- 
ber, must be broad, thick, and smooth on the outside, and all 
the rest, as well as these, must be free from notch or serra- 
ture, and lap over each other sufficiently to form a circular 
roseate flower, the more round the outline the better. 

3. Each row of petals should be smaller than the row 



16 



immediately under it ; there should not be less than five or 
six rows of petals laid regularly, and the flower should rise 
and form a good bold centre or crown, and in quantity 
should form half a ball. 

4. The petals should be stiff and slightly cupped. 

5. The ground should be pure or snow white, without 
specks of color. 

6. The stripes of color should be clear and distinct, not 
running into one another, nor confused, but dense, smooth at 
the edges of the stripes, and well defined. 

7. The colors must be bright and clear, whatever they 
may be ; if there be two colors, the darker one cannot be 
too dark, or form too strong a contrast with the lighter. 
With scarlet, the perfection would be a black ; with pink, 
there cannot be too deep a crimson ; with lilac or light pur- 
ple, the second color cannot be too dark a purple. 

8. If the colors run into the white and tinge it, or the 
white is not pure, the fault is very great, and pouncy spots 
or specks are highly objectionable. 

9. The pod of the bloom should be long and large to en- 
able the flower to bloom without bursting it, but this is rare ; 
they generally require to be tied about half way, and the 
upper part of the calyx opened down to the tie of each 
division ; yet there are some which scarcely require any 
assistance, and this is a very estimable quality. 

PICOTEE. 

The properties of form are similar to those of the Carna- 
tion ; but the distinction between Carnations and Picotees is, 
that the color of the former is disposed in unequal stripes, 
going from the centre to the outer edges, and that of the 
Picotees is disposed on the outer edges of the petals and 
radiates inwards, and the more uniformly this is disposed 
the better. Whether it be very deeply feathered at the edge. 



17 



like the pattern on the edge of a heavy feathered tulip, or 
an even stripe not wider than the thickness of the petal, all 
round the edge or something between, it is only necessary 
that it be uniform ; that none of the feathery marks have a 
break, and that there shall be as much width of white as 
color seen on the petal at the deepest part of the feather. 
It is not necessary that the feather be the same width all 
the way round, but every stripe which does not reach the 
edge of the petal is a blemish. 

DISQUALIFICATIONS OF BLOOM IN BOTH. 

1. If there be any petal dead or mutilated. 

2. If there be any one petal in which there is no color. 

3. If there be any one petal in which there is no white. 

4. If a pod be split down to the sub-calyx. If a guard 
petal be badly split. 

5. Notched edges are glaring faults, for which no excel- 
lence in other respects compensates, but they are not abso- 
lute disqualifications. 

HOLLYHOCK. 

1. The flower should be round, and the principal or guard 
petals should be thick, entire on the edges, and lie flat, being 
free from puckering or frilling. 

2. The centre, which is composed of florets, should form 
half a ball, and the more it covers the principal or guard 
petals the better. 

3. These florets should be thick, large, whole on the 
edges, perfectly free from fringe, notch, or raggedness all 
over. 

4. The color should be dense instead of watery and trans- 
parent or washy, as that of the Hollyhock is generally. 
The more bright and novel the more desirable. 

5. The spike should be close, the flowers touching each 
other, and tapering from the bottom to the top ; the foot- 

B* 



18 



stalks of the flower being larger at {he lower end of the 
spike than at the upper end. 

6. There is no fixed height for the plant, but the flowers 
should begin one foot from the ground, and open all at once. 

CALCEOLARIA. 

1. The plant should be shrubby; the habit bushy; the 
wood strong ; the foliage thick and dark green. 

2. The flower stem should be short and strong, and the 
footstalks of the blooms elastic and branching well away 
from each other, to form a rich mass of flowers — without 
crowding. 

3. The individual flower depends entirely on the form of 
the purse ; it should be a perfect round hollow ball ; the 
orifice and calyx cannot be too small, nor the flower too 
large. 

4. The color should be very dense ; whether the marking 
be a spot in the middle, or stripes or blotches, it should be 
well defined ; the ground should be all one color, whether 
white, straw, sulphur, yellow, or any other color. 

5. The color of a self should be brilliant, and all over of 
the same actual shade ; dark flowers, with pale edges or 
clouded and indefinite colors, are bad and unfit for show. 

6. The bloom should form one handsome group of pend- 
ent flowers, commencing where the foliage leaves off; the 
flower stems should not be seen between the foliage and the 
flowers, which latter should hang gracefully and be close to 
each other, the branches of the flower stems holding them 
so as to form a handsome surface. 

PANSY OR HEARTSEASE. 

1. It should be round, flat, and very smooth at the edge, 
every notch or serrature or unevenness being a blemish. 

2. The petals should be thick, and of a rich velvety text- 
ure, standing out firm and flat without support. 



19 

3. Whatever may be the colors, the ground color of the 
three lower petals should be alike : whether it be white, 
yellow, straw color, plain, fringed or blotched, there should 
not in these three petals be a shade of difference in the prin- 
cipal color. 

4. Whatever may be the character of the marks or darker 
pencillings on the ground color, they should be bright, dense, 
distinct, and retain their character without running, or flush- 
ing, or mixing with the ground color ; and the white, yellow 
or straw color should be pure. 

5. The two upper petals should be perfectly unifonu, 
whether dark or light or fringed or blotched. The two 
petals immediately under them should be alike ; and the 
lower petal, as before observed, must have the same ground 
color and character as the two above it ; and the pencilling 
or marking of the eye in the three lower petals must not 
break throuo^h to the edges. 

6. In size there is a distinct point, when coarseness does 
not accompany it ; in other words, if flowers are equal in 
other respects, the larger is the better ; but no flower should 
be shown under one inch and a half across. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

Ragged edges, crumpled petals, indentures on the petal, 
indistinct markings or pencillings, and flushed or run colors, 
are great blemishes ; but if there be one ground color to the 
lower petal and another color to the side ones, or if there 
are two shades of ground color at all, it is not a show flower, 
though many such are improperly tolerated — the yellow 
within the eye is not considered ground color. In selecting 
new varieties, not one should be let out which has the last- 
mentioned blemish, and none should be sold that do not very 
closely approach the circular four. One of the prevailing 
faults in the so-called best flowers is the smallness of the 
centre yellow or white, and the largeness of the eye, Mhich 



20 

breaks through it into the border. We are so severe in 
these matters ourselves, that we count the very best of them 
no bloom in summing up the good ones ; there are few stands 
of over thirty-six, that contain twelve good show flowers. 

HYACINTH. 

1. Each pip or flower should be round and not ragged. 

2. The petals should be broad, thick, blunt at the ends, 
not pointed, and reflexed enough to throw up the centre well. 

3. The footstalk should be strong, and hold the flower out 
stiff in a vertical position, that is, facing the spectator, and 
by no means weak, to allow the pip to hang with the face 
sloping towards the ground. The footstalks should also be 
of a length to make the pips touch each other and no more. 

4. The pips should be large, for, unless the pips be large, 
they cannot touch each other without very short footstalks, 
and the flowers would be so close to the stem that the truss 
itself would be no size. 

5. Double flowers should have the rows of petals above 
each other very regularly imbricated, so as to throw up the 
centre. 

6. The outer petals, therefore, of a double flower need 
not reflex and should not reflex so much as a single one, 
because the centre is raised by the second and third rows of 
petals. 

7. The spike should be bold, round, compact, and pyram- 
idal, with a number of flowers at the bottom, gradually 
diminishing to a single flower at the top. 

8. The flower stem should be very strong and upright, 
and no part of it should be seen from the lowest flowers to 
the top, in consequence of the closeness of the pips to each 
other. 

9. The colors should be bright, clear and dense, whatever 
the shade ; and any better approach to scarlet, blue or yel- 



21 

low than those shades we now possess, would be higlily 
esteemed ; flowers with dark eyes, very clear outsides, and 
those with striped petals, would be held to be better than 
selfs in general, but would give no point against form. 

TULIP. 

1. The cup should form, when quite expanded, from half 
to a third of a hollow ball. To do this, the petals must be 
six in number ; broad at the ends, smooth at the edges, and 
the divisions between the petals must scarcely show an in- 
denture. 

2. The three inner petals should set close to the three 
outer ones, ?nd the whole should be broad enough to allow 
of the fullest expansion without quartering, as it is called ; 
that is, exhibiting any vacancy between the petals. 

3. The petals should be thick, smooth, and stiff, and keep 
their form well. 

4. The ground should be clear and distinct, whether white 
or yellow. The least stain, even at the lower end of the 
petal, would render a Tulip comparatively valueless. 

5. Roses, bybloems and bizarres are the three classes into 
which Tulips are now divided. The first have a white 
ground, and crimson or pink or scarlet marks ; the second 
have white grounds, and purple, lilac or black marks ; and 
the last have yellow grounds, with any colored marks. 

6. Whatever be the disposition of colors or marks upon a 
Tulip, all the six petals should be marked alike, and be, 
therefore, perfectly uniform. 

7. The feathered flowers should have an even, close 
feathering all round, and whether narrow or wide, light or 
heavy, should reach far enough round the petals to form, 
when they are expanded, an unbroken edging all round. 

8. If the flower have any marking besides the feathering 
at the edge, it should be a beam, or bold mark down the 



22 

centre, but not reaching the bottom, or near the bottom of 
the cup ; the mark or beam must be similar in all the six 
petals. 

9. Flowers not feathered, and with flame only, must have 
no marks on the edges of the flow^ers. None of the color 
must break through to the edge. The color may be disposed 
in any form, so that it be perfectly uniform in all the petals, 
and does not go too near the bottom. 

10. The color, whatever it may be, must be dense and 
decided ; whether it be delicate and light, or bright or dark, 
it must be distinct in its outline, and not shaded or flushed 
or broken. 

11. The height should be eighteen to thirty-six inches; 
the former is right for the outside row in a bed, and the 
latter is right for the highest row. 

12. The purity of the white and the brightness of the 
yellow should be permanent ; that is to say, should stand 
until the petals actually fall. 

DIGITALIS OR FOXGLOVE. 

The plant below the flower should be only the same length 
as the spike of flowers. 

1. The individual bloom should be as bright outside the 
tube as it is inside. 

2. The tube long and large, the mouth wide, the petals 
thick, and free from notch or serrature in the margin. 

3. The footstalks strong, that the flowers may stand out 
from the main stem, and rather droop. 

4. Contrast in colors is desirable, as aflbrding a greater 
variety, and the colors always bright and striking, as the 
great fault of the Digitalis or Foxglove is its dull, heavy, 
dingy color. 



23 



PETUNIA. 

1. A Petunia should have strong stems, and a close habit; 
large, thick, round and flat flowers ; abundance of bloom, 
while short and handsome. 

2. The color or shade is a matter of taste ; but such is 
the fancy of people in these days, that a new, ugly color 
would be thought more of than an old, handsome one. 

3. Such is the state of glorious confusion into which 
botanists have brought things, that when Mr. Tweedie sent 
home the purple variety, Dr. Hooker called it Salpiglossis 
integrifoHa; Professor Don, Nierembergia phcenicia; and 
Dr. Lindley, Petunia violacea. The green-edged varieties 
are worthless, and the double varieties are as yet hardly up 
to the mark as show flowers, though susceptible of great 
improvement. 

VERBENA. 

1. The flower should be round, without indenture, and no 
notch or serrature. 

2. The petals should be thick, flat, bright and smooth. 

3. The plant should be compact; the joints short and 
strong and distinctly of a shrubby habit, or a close ground 
creeper or a climber ; those which partake of all are bad. 

4. The trusses of bloom should be compact and stand out 
from the foliage, the flowers touching each other, but not 
crowding. 

5. The foliage should be short, broad, bright, and enough 
of it to hide the stalks. 

6. In selfs the color should be bright and clear ; if white, 
pure and constant. In striped or variegated varieties the 
colors must be well defined and the lines of demarkation 
distinct; blurred, irregular flowers are bad. If eyed, the 
eye must be well defined, the larger the better ; the^colors 



24 



must never run into each other ; the greater the contrast of 
color the better. 

Eyed varieties are not to be considered better than selfs 
in judging a stand, but, other things being equal, the stand 
having the greatest number of distinct, well-defined varieties 
should receive the prize. 

IRIS. 

This flower is composed of three principal and three 
secondary petals or divisions. The three principal fall down 
and the others stand up. A glance at many of the families 
will soon decide a very important property in some, and 
deficiency in others — the breadth of the three principal 
petals. It will occur to the untaught child, that the flower 
which presents the largest portion of rich surface is the best ; 
all who have grown the common Iris know it has narrow, 
mean-looking petals ; but the kind which has been propa- 
gated in England has a broad, rich-looking petal, and upon 
this feature does the beauty of the Iris turn. 

The three principal divisions or petals should be broad 
enough to touch each other, and form an arch or graceful 
curve, but described as one third of a hollow ball, or reversed 
cup, level at the lower edge by reason of the bluntness of 
the three petals at the outer end, which should form a circu- 
lar outline on looking down upon them. The three smaller 
petals should stand up, and be perfectly clear of the three 
that fall down. 

The three lower petals should be of a rich velvety 
texture, and be thick, smooth on the edges, firm in their 
places, and, whether self-colored, striped, mottled, shaded, or 
spotted, the color should be well defined. 

The three upper ones should be of a different color, and 
of a smooth or enamel kind of texture ; the greater the 
contrast of color the better. The Iris is a dwarf plant, and 



25 



though three petals fall down and three stand up, and the 
fall of the broad petals is too sudden, and, on looking down 
on them, they hardly form any recognizable outline, it is 
capable of being produced with a fall not so sudden, and a 
curve perfectly graceful ; and the great advantage of this 
will be, that the entire surface may be seen at once, instead 
of a portion only. 

The flowers should open but one at a time, that the 
beauty of the plant may be prolonged. The flower should 
be eighteen inches from the ground, and, when full grown 
and expanded, be four inches across. 

LILY. 

1. The plant should be only as high from the pot to the 
bottom flower, as it is from the bottom flower to the top one. 
The leaves should be long and plenty of them at bottom, 
and gradually shorten and lessen in number as they ap- 
proach the bottom bloom. 

2. The individual blooms should be large, and composed 
of broad petals reflexing in the form of a globe, without 
separation at the points, or forming gutters or uneven ribs 
in the petals, but showing a fair, round, even surface, and 
exhibiting none of the backs of the petals. 

3. The petals should be thick, rich in texture, free from 
notches or puckers, of pure ground color or white. The 
blooms should be on strong footstalks ; the lower flower fur- 
ther off the stem than the upper, and these should not be 
less than seven in the truss or spike, that should form a 
tapering head of flowers. 

4. The varieties speckled with the ruby-like spots should 
be of pure white ground, and the spots bright scarlet ; those 
with pale rosy ground should have black spots, and the 
more and the larger, the better. 

c 



26 



GERANIUM OR PELARGONIUM. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, blunt, and smooth 
at the edges, and slightly cupped. 

2. The flower should be circular, higher at the edges than 
in the centre, (so as to form rather a hollow, though by no 
means a deeply-cupped bloom), without puckering or frilling; 
and where the petals lap over each other, the indentation 
caused by the joining should be hardly perceptible. 

3. The petals should lie close on each other, so as to ap- 
pear a whole flower rather than a five-petalled flower. 

4. The stem should be straight, strong, elastic, carrying 
the blooms well above the foliage. The footstalks of the 
individual flowers should be stiff, and of sufficient length to 
allow the flowers to show themselves in an even head, fitting 
compactly edge to edge, and forming a uniform bold truss. 

5. The color should be bright and dense, whether it be 
scarlet, crimson, rose color, purple, lilac, or any of the mod- 
ifications ; the spots on the upper petals should be boldly 
contrasted with the ground, and the darker the better ; both 
upper petals should be alike, both side petals alike, and the 
lower petals uniform. 

6. All white grounds should be very pure ; and the colors, 
no matter what they be, in the white, should be decided, 
well defined, and by no means flush into the white. 

7. The spots on the upper petals, or the marks in any 
other, should not break through to the edge. 

8. Colors being a matter of taste, do not affect the real 
properties so much as other points, unless it be. on the score 
of novelty ; on this ground a bright scarlet would be desira- 
ble and a black spot. We have plenty of approaches to 
both, but none very near. 

9. The plant should be shrubby in its habit, the foliage 
close and of a rich bright green, the joints short and strong. 



27 



able to support themselves in every part without assistance. 
The flowers should be large, not less than five in a truss, 
and come at the end of every shoot. 

DAHLIA. 

1. The flower should be a perfect circle when viewed in 
front ; the petals should be broad at the ends, smooth at the 
edges, thick in substance, perfectly free from indenture or 
point, and stiff to hold their form ; the flower should cup a 
little, but not enough to show the under surface. They 
should be in regular rows, forming an outline of a perfect 
circle, without any vacancy between them, and all in the 
circle should be the same size, uniformly opened to the same 
shape, and not crumpled. 

2. The flower should form two thirds of a ball when 
looked at sideways. The row of. petals should rise one 
above another, symmetrically ; every petal should cover the 
joining 'of the two petals under it — what the florists call 
imbricating, by which means the circular appearance is 
perfected throughout. 

3. The centre should be perfect ; the unbloomed petals, 
laying with their points towards the centre, should form a 
button, and should be the highest part of the flower, com- 
pleting the ball. 

4. The flower should be symmetrical. The petals should 
open boldly, without showing their under side, even when 
half opened, and should form circular rows uniformly laid, 
evenly opened, and enlarging by degrees to the outer row 
of all. 

5. The flowers should be very double. The rows of 
petals lying one above another should cover one another 
very nearly ; not more should be seen in depth than half 
the breadth ; the more they are covered, so as to leave them 
distinct, the better in that respect; the petals therefore, 
though cupped, must be shallow. 



28 



6. The size of the flower, when well grown, should be 
four inches diameter, and not more than six. 

7. The color should be dense, whatever it be, not as if it 
were a white dipped in color, but as if the whole flower was 
colored throughout. Whether tipped or edged it must be 
free from splashes or blotches, or indefinite marks of any- 
kind ; and new flowers, unless they are superior to all old ones 
of the same color, or are of a novel color themselves, with 
a majority of the points of excellence, should be rejected. 

RHODODENDRON. 

1. The flower should be circular, and campanulated or 
hollow like a globular cup. 

2. The five divisions of the petal should be concealed by 
means of the lapping over, and they should be large. 

3. The petal should be thick, smooth at the edge, stiff, 
and hold its shape well. 

4. The truss of blooms should be pyramidal or dome- 
shaped, stand clear of the foliage, the flower compact, touch- 
ing but not crowding each other. 

5. The footstalks should be stiff and elastic. 

6. The color should be brilliant, the spots distinct and 
contrasted, and stand well without fading. 

7. The plant should be bushy, the foliage bright clear 
green, large, and disposed all round the branch, especially 
round the flower. 

8. The stems should be well covered with leaves, and the 
bloom should be abundant. 

9. It should not bloom until the middle of June if hardy, 
as, by beginning before the frosts have gone, the blooms are 
always spoiled. 

The following would be considered great faults : — The 
petals pointed, thin, notchy, frilled, or crumpled ; the divis- 
ions narrow, the flowers loose in the truss, the footstalks 



29 



weak and too long, the color dull, the spots not bold nor 
strong ; the foliage narrow, dull, and far apart ; the habit 
lanky ; plant straggling and ugly. 

PINK. 

The properties of the pink, so far as form, substance, and 
some other particular features are concerned, should be the 
same as those of the Carnation and Picotee. 

1. The flower should be circular, and rise like half a ball. 

2. The petals should be thick, broad, smooth at the edges, 
without notch or serrature, regularly disposed, and each row 
smaller than that immediately under it. 

3. The ground should be pure white ; and the color, 
whatever it may be, from rose color to dark red, or from 
lilac to dark purple approaching black, should reach from 
the inside of the petal far enough outwards to show in front 
beyond the petals above it, and form a rich eye. 

4. A narrow, plain, even lacing or stripe of the color 
should appear inside the white edge, which should be just 
the same width outside the lacing as the lacing itself is, and 
as even. 

5. There should be no break or vacancy in the lacing, 
and the color inside of the petal ought, as well as the lacing, 
to be well defined, forming a circular colored eye or centre 
to each row of petals. 

6. Self-colored petals, split petals, and split pods are dis- 
qualifications. Notched or saw-like edges, broken or imper- 
fect lacing, specks or foul marks on the white, thinness or 
flimsiness of texture, looseness of construction or deficiency 
of petals, are glaring faults. 

7. Li a general way, in all other respects but the size and 
coloring, the properties of the Pink should be similar to those 
of the Carnation and Picotee ; and no Pink ought to be less 
than two inches in diameter. 



30 



PHLOX. 

1. Every individual bloom should be perfectly round and 
flat, without notch, division, or serrature. 

2. The petals should be thick and smooth. 

3. The individual flowers, by their number, form a good 
head or truss touching each other, rising in the centre and 
not confused. 

4. The color should be dense and pure ; if white or yel- 
low or straw or cream color, it should be decided and all 
over alike ; if striped or spotted, the marking should be uni- 
form and well defined. 

5. The individual blooms should be large, and the truss 
proportionally so ; though size counts for nothing if the 
other properties are deficient. 

6. The plant should be dwarf and branching, and the 
flowers numerous, so as to cover it completely when it 
blooms. 

P^ONY. 

1. The petals should be thick, broad, and smooth at the* 
edges. 

2. The flowers should be large, double, round outline and 
face, symmetrical and abundant. 

3. The foliage should be small, the stems strong, and the 
bloom stand up boldly, and by no means hang down. 

4. The color should be dense and decided. 

AMARYLLIS. 

The flower ought to open Convolvulus-fashion, and have 
no indentations or divisions ; this brings us to a very good 
test, — the less division there is the better. The truss, or 
bunch of flowers, ought to consist of five. 

The flowers ought to be very thick, very smooth at the 



31 



edge, of a velvety texture inside, and of a dense color, with- 
out any touch of green. 

The most perfect in these respects, though the most 
awkward and ill formed, is formosissimus, the flowers of 
which are of a deep crimson velvety texture, rich in the 
extreme ; but there appears to be little aflinity between that 
plant and the gay subjects of the present notice. 

AZALEA INDICA. 

The flower should be round, composed of five divisions, 
though only one petal ; and the indentures, where they join, 
should be so small as not to materially interrupt the circle. 

2. The petal should be thick, and of course, to be round, 
the ends of the divided portions should be blunt, lap over 
each other, and be free from notch, serrature or blemish. 

3. The flower should be large and slightly cupped ; the 
color should be distinct, dense, and, if a self, alike in all the 
petals, or rather the divisions. 

4. K variegated, the colors should be distinct, and if spot- 
led, the spots should be so much darker than the other color 
as to forai a strong contrast. 

5. The leaf should be bright green, the plant shrubby, 
the wood or stems strong to stand without support, and short 
to form a compact bush. 

GERMAN ASTER. 

The flower should be double, high in the crown, round, 
without disk or confusion in the centre, of the form of half 
a ball. The petals should be broad, thick, smooth, round at 
the ends, according with the circle of the flower and the 
indentations, well covered where they meet. 

In the pgeony-flowered varieties the petals must not show 
their under side by quilling, but must lie smooth and firm in 
their places. 



32 



In the quilled varieties the quilling must be dense and 
regular, rising in the form of half a ball from the disk, which 
in this variety should exist and be composed of broad, stiff, 
rounded petals forming the circle of the flower. The quills 
should be of uniform length and well opened. 

Color in all varieties bright and clear, variegations well 
defined ; if a self, bright ; if white, pure. 

Size is a merit, but is the last point to be considered. 

Asters should be shown as single blooms or plants, as in 
the pyramidal and dwarf varieties, where the beauty of the 
variety is the mass of flowers ; but these different modes of 
exhibition should never be allowed to come into competition 
with each other. 

Where plants are shown the foliage should be bright and 
perfect. 

Insect cuttings disqualify a flower. 

The stem should be strong and firm and well support the 
flower. 

BALSAM. 

These plants should be shown in spikes. Single varieties 
disqualify a stand. The stalk should be stout, firm and 
erect, well clothed with dark green, short, stiff foliage, but 
not so thick as to hide the bloom. 

The flowers should be large, round, cup-shaped, imbricate. 
Spur short ; peduncle short and stiff, holding the flower close 
to the stalk. 

The flowers should be expanded at least on two thirds of 
the stalk. 

Color should be bright and pure ; in mottled, spotted, 
striped or shaded varieties, the contrasts should be well de- 
fined and the variegations clear. Flabby leaves and flowers 
disqualify a stand. 



33 



GILLYFLOWER OR STOCK. 

This plant should be shown in spikes. The foliage (if 
any) should be bright, shining or glaucous green, stiff and 
firm. Flowers thickly disposed on all sides of the spike, 
but not crowded. Form of flower globular, and as near a 
circle as possible. Petals evenly arranged, of good sub- 
stance. Colors clear and well defined. 

Green in the centre disqualifies a flower. 

When shown as plants, long leafless shoots are inadmissi- 
ble : the foliage should be dense and healthy. 

Side shoots should not be longer than the main stem. In 
fact, the plant should be pyramidal. 

The tall varieties may, however, show a clear stem with 
a dense bushy head of leaves and flowers, but even with 
these, bushy plants are more elegant. These remarks ap- 
ply also to Wall Flowers. 



INDEX. 



Amaryllis, 


30 


Gloxinia, 


7 


Antirrhinum, . 


11 


Hollyhock, 


17 


Aquilegia, 


6 


Hyacinth, 


20 


Azalea Indica, . 


31 


Iris, . . . . 


24 


Balsam, . 


32 


Lily, . . . 


25 


Begonia, . 


5 


Paeony, 


30 


Bouquets, 


4 


Pansy or Heartsease, 


18 


Calceolaria, 


18 


Petunia, . 


23 


Camellia Japonica, 


9 


Phlox, . 


30 


Cape Heaths, . 


8 


Picotee, . 


16 


Carnation, 


15 


Pink, 


29 


Chrysanthemum, 


10 


Pot Plants, 


4 


Cineraria, 


9 


Rhododendron, 


28 


Dahlia, . 


27 


Roses, . ... 


12 


Delphinium, 


6 


" Moss, . 


12 


Digitalis or Foxglovt 


;, . 22 


" for Stands, . 


13 


Double Zinnia Elega 


ns, . 7 


" Noisette, 


14 


Epacris, . 


5 


" Climbing, 


14 


Fuchsia, . 


10 


Sweet William, 


15 


German Aster, 


31 


Tropseolum, 


5 


Geranium or Pelargo 


nium, 26 


Tulip, 


21 


Gillyflower or Stock, 


33 


Verbena, . 


23 


Gladiolus, 


6 







Hi 



